On the cusp of his biggest movie role yet, Oscar Isaac is making his first major foray into television. Isaac stars in Show Me a Hero, a new miniseries by The Wire creator David Simon and Crash director Paul Haggis, as real-life Yonkers, New York mayor Nick Wasicsko.

When a federal court demands that the city build low-income housing units within the city’s wealthier white neighborhoods, the city threatens to tear itself apart, and destroy Nick in the process. Catherine Keener, Alfred Molina, Winona Ryder, LaTanya Richardson-Jackson, Bob Balaban, and Jim Belushi also star. Watch the Show Me a Hero trailer after the jump. Read More »

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Few creative voices out in the world inspire as much confidence as David Simon. The creator of The Wire, as well as Homicide, Generation Kill and Treme, is the king of making detailed, character based genre television that’s incredibly challenging to viewers. Because of that, most of the time the work isn’t appreciated as it airs, if at all. Still, there’s no denying his skill and HBO continues to work with him. His latest show, Show Me A Hero, will air in August and now he’s looking for a subsequent project. That project might be called The Deuce, a story about the world of sex and pornography in 1970s New York. Read about the new David Simon show below. Read More »

When Oscar Isaacwas cast in The Wire creator David Simon‘s limited series Show Me a Hero, plenty of people knew he was a great talent, and there was plenty reason to be interested in a series that drew the two together. Now, however, we’ve all seen Isaac in Ex Machina, not to mention the trailers and photos from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. So it’s a great time for new info on the HBO series, however brief it may be. The Show Me a Hero premiere has been announced for August, and we’ve got a bit more info below. Read More »

A Presidential conversation with a TV creator admittedly is on the borderline of this site’s focus. But when that TV creator is David Simon, the man primarily responsible for arguably the best TV show ever, The Wire, and he’s talking about issues in that show with the sitting President of the United States, that’s something more. That’s historic and something anyone who is a fan of The Wire would be interested in seeing. Watch the President Obama The Wire video below. Read More »

We started to get bent out of shape earlier this week when HBO announced that the aspect ratio of The Wire HD remasters would be set at 16:9 rather than the original 4:3 broadcast ratio. Series creator David Simon quickly weighed in to provide a great deal of information on the remaster process, and we learned that in most cases these remasters would be using more information from the original camera negative, rather than cropping information from the top and/or bottom of the original presentation.

The gif above shows the basic result of this process, thanks to a couple example videos Simon has provided on his own site. Below, we’ve got a couple more examples, and some larger images you can check out to see the differences between the show’s original presentation and the new HD remasters. Read More »

The Wire is coming to HD at last, but perhaps not quite in the form you want. The show was formatted for a 4:3 aspect ratio when originally shot and broadcast, and that’s how it was released on DVD. But for The Wire HD remasters, which will first be available on HBO Go and for digital purchase before eventually appearing on Blu-ray, the show has been formatted for a 16:9 presentation. Note the word “formatted” there rather than “cropped,” as the choice is intentional and important.

Reaction to this news, especially coming so soon after The Simpsons debacle on FXX and the Simpsons World portal, was quick, and very negative. In short, seeing such concessions made to a project like The Wire — a creator-driven, serious drama that originally played to a limited fanbase — is a sign that the aspect ratio war is basically over, and we’ve lost.

But in the case of The Wire, the situation is more complicated than that. Let the show’s creator David Simon explain. Read More »

HBO’s The Wire ended its run in 2008 after 60 episodes across five acclaimed seasons. But if creator David Simon had had his way, he might have stuck around that universe a little bit longer. In a recent interview, he talked about his discarded plans for a The Wire spinoff centered on Tommy Carcetti, the Baltimore politician played by Aidan Gillen.

Hit the jump for more details about The Wire spinoff that never was, including Simon’s explanation of why it never was.

Rumors exploded all over the internet Tuesday that the legendary HBO series, The Wire, was being remastered into high definition for an upcoming marathon. Well, sorry to burst the bubble of all you Bubbles fans out there, but the statement is only half true. HBO has confirmed that, yes, the David Simon series – which originally aired and was released on DVD in standard definition, full screen – is in the process of being remastered for high definition widescreen. Unfortunately, that process is still ongoing and will most certainly not begin airing later this month as rumored. Read More »

The roles keep rolling in for Oscar Isaac. The Star Wars Episode VII actor has been set to star in HBO’s Show Me a Hero, from The Wire creator David Simon. Catherine Keener also boards the civil rights drama, based on the nonfiction book by Lisa Belkin. Hit the jump for more details.